President Tayyip Erdogan has urged his supporters to remain on the streets until the situation normalises after the attempted military coup.

Addressing a crowd of thousands of supporters waving flags at Istanbul’s main airport, Erdogan said the government remained at the helm.

He also said disturbances continued in the capital Ankara and he hoped they would end soon.

He added that flights by flag carrier Turkish Airlines had resumed.

Around 50 soldiers involved in an attempted military coup in Turkey have surrendered on one of the bridges across the Bosphorus in Istanbul, abandoning their tanks with their hands raised in the air, live footage on CNN Turk showed.

Witnesses earlier saw tens of other pro-coup soldiers surrendering to armed police after being surrounded in Istanbul’s central Taksim square.

Turkey has appointed the head of its First Army as acting chief of military staff while the whereabouts of the head of the armed forces remains unknown, officials said.

Umit Dundar was appointed after the head of the military could not be accounted for in the chaos of an attempted coup.

Local media reports said earlier the chief of staff had been taken hostage.

At least 60 people were killed during an attempted military coup inTurkey overnight, a senior official said on Saturday.

Turkish authorities have detained 336 people in connection with the attempted coup, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Saturday.

The arrests occurred across the country.

European Council President Donald Tusk said that tensions there cannot be resolved by guns.

Tusk also said the consequences of the coup attempt would be crucial for the whole region and for EU-Turkey relations.

Supporters of President Erdogan attacked a group of pro-coup soldiers who had surrendered on an Istanbul bridge before police intervened to rescue them.

Erdogan had repeatedly urged his supporters to take to the streets to help put down the coup attempt, which he said had been carried out by a faction of the armed forces loyal to his arch foe, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

An organisation close to Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen has denied involvement in the attempt coup against President Erdogan.

“We condemn any military intervention in domestic politics of Turkey,” the Alliance for Shared Values group said in a statement.

“Comments by pro-Erdogan circles about the movement are highly irresponsible,” it said.

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a television interview that members of the movement loyal to Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, were involved in the attempted military takeover.

In an email from the Turkish military General Staff’s media office address, the pro-coup faction said it was determinedly still fighting.

Calling itself the Peace at Home Movement, the faction also called on people to stay indoors for their own safety.

Turkish authorities have detained 754 members of the armed forces after an overnight coup attempt by a faction within the military that used tanks and attack helicopters to try to overthrow the government, a senior official said.

The head of Turkey’s armed forces has been rescued after being held hostage during an attempted coup by a military faction which used tanks and attack helicopters to try to seize power overnight, a senior Turkish official said.

Hulusi Akar had been held by rebel soldiers during the attempted coup, Turkish broadcasters said.

He wanted less power for the military so this failed coup comes in handy to pull even more strings and turn him into an even more dictator.

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